1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to methods and devices for ejecting discs, and particularly, to a method and a device for ejecting a disc in which a disc in a disc apparatus is properly conveyed to a disc-ejecting position via a disc-conveying unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in-vehicle and home disc apparatuses, such as car navigation systems and music players, have been used for playing back image data or audio data recorded on a disc, or recording image data or audio data onto a disc.
In such disc apparatuses, a disc is held and rotated by a rotator disposed in the disc apparatus while an optical head is used to play back data from or record data onto the disc.
Furthermore, such disc apparatuses are provided with a disc-ejecting device for ejecting the disc from the disc apparatus. In detail, the disc-ejecting device conveys the disc in the disc apparatus to a disc-ejecting position where the disc can be pulled outward from the disc apparatus, namely, a position where the disc is exposed through an opening provided in the disc apparatus.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-217220, for example, discloses a conventional example of a method and a device for ejecting a disc.
Such a disc-ejecting device is provided with a disc-conveying unit for conveying the disc between a disc-holding position corresponding to a rotator and the disc-ejecting position. The disc-conveying unit includes a rotary member, such as a conveying roller or a conveyor pulley, which comes into contact with the disc. The rotary member rotates in the ejecting direction of the disc so as to convey the disc to the disc-ejecting position.
The disc-conveying unit is rotated by a driving source, such as a motor, and the driving source is controlled by a controller provided in the disc-ejecting device.
The controller is electrically connected with an eject button by which a user can enter a command signal for disc-ejection. When the eject button is pressed, the controller starts a control operation for rotating the disc-conveying unit in the ejecting direction.
Furthermore, in the conventional disc-ejecting device, if a disc is not properly ejected from the disc apparatus, the disc is conveyed back to the disc-holding position, and subsequently, a retry operation for restarting the ejecting process of the disc is performed.
In order to achieve this, the disc-ejecting device is provided with a detector, such as an optical sensor, for detecting whether the disc has been conveyed to the disc-ejecting position. The detection result by the detector is provided to the controller.
Moreover, the disc-ejecting device is also provided with a timer for measuring the elapsed time from the start of the ejecting process of the disc performed by the disc-conveying unit.
If the detector does not detect the disc within a predetermined time period set in the timer, the controller controls the disc-conveying unit so as to rotate the disc-conveying unit in the inserting direction, i.e., opposite to the ejecting direction. This conveys the disc back to the disc-holding position. Accordingly, the controller performs such a control operation for restarting the ejecting process.
FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating a retry operation performed by a disc-ejecting device of such a type. In the retry operation, when a user presses an eject button in step 1 (ST1) shown in FIG. 7, a disc in the process of a playback operation or a recording operation is stopped from rotating in step 2 (ST2).
Subsequently, in step 3 (ST3), the disc-conveying unit is rotated in the ejecting direction. This starts an ejecting process of the disc in step 4 (ST4).
In step 5 (ST5), it is determined whether the disc is detected at the disc-ejecting position within a predetermined time period set in the timer. If the detection of the disc is confirmed, the operation proceeds to step 6 (ST6), whereas if the detection is not confirmed, it is determined that an error has occurred in the ejecting process. In the latter case, the operation returns to step 3 (ST3). Although not shown in the drawing, before returning to step 3 (ST3), the disc-conveying unit is rotated in the inserting direction so that the disc is conveyed back to the disc-holding position.
In step 6 (ST6), the disc-conveying unit is stopped from rotating. Finally, the operation proceeds to step 7 (ST7) where the ejecting process of the disc is completed.
On the other hand, if the operation returns to step 3 (ST3) from step 5 (ST5), step 3 (ST3) and step 4 (ST4) are sequentially performed in order to repeat the ejecting process of the disc.
Accordingly, if an error occurs in the ejecting process of the disc in such a conventional method, the same steps in the ejecting process are repeated in order to recover from the error.
Such errors occurring in the ejection of discs are mainly due to, for example, rough edges present on discs and foreign matter attached to discs.
In other words, the rough-edged portions and unclean portions on the disc come into contact with mechanical components, such as the disc-conveying unit mentioned above, during the ejecting process, and thus interfere with the conveying process of the disc in the ejecting direction.
As shown in FIG. 8, especially when a disc 50 is a laminated type, such as a DVD, an adhesive 51 used for laminating together the disc-plate components protrudes outward from between the bonded surfaces of the disc-plate components. This forms rough-edged portions along the outer periphery of the laminated disc 50, and thus increases the probability of an occurrence of error in the ejecting process.
In the conventional disc-ejecting method, when an error occurs due to such rough-edged portions and foreign matter, the disc is simply re-conveyed in the ejecting direction by the disc-conveying unit for the retry operation. For this reason, the positional relationship between the mechanical components mentioned above and the rough-edged portions and unclean portions on the disc remain relatively unchanged. Therefore, it is very common that the error occurs over and over again.
Accordingly, it is considered that there are no effective conventional disc-ejecting methods that can properly recover from errors occurring in ejecting processes.